WAR The World Is a Ghetto LP

WAR's third album separate from Eric Burdon, The World Is a Ghetto was released in late 1972 on United Artists Records and attained the number one spot on Billboard in addition to ranking as Billboard magazine's Album of the Year as the best-selling album of 1973. The title track became a gold record.

Beyond the quality of the musicianship, the classy, forward-looking production has held up remarkably well, and not just on the most famous cuts here; indeed, The World Is a Ghetto is of a piece with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Curtis Mayfield's Curtis, utilizing the most sophisticated studio techniques of the era. Not only does it sound great, but there are important touches such as the phasing in 'Four Cornered Room,' not only on the percussion but also on the vocals, guitars, and other instruments, and the overall effect is a seemingly contradictory (yet eminently workable) shimmering blues, even working in a mournful and unadorned harmonica amid the more complex sounds.